Current work on cool materials (particularly for roofing) has focused on the basic idea to find various colored materials, such as coatings, tiles, roofing granules, etc., that stay cooler in the sun than conventional materials. White materials are usually best, but architects and building owners often prefer non-white and even dark materials. To date, this has been done by selecting pigments (colorants) that do not absorb the near-infrared (NIR) portion of sunlight. Reflection of the NIR can then either be accomplished by the pigment itself or by a white (or other NIR-reflecting) underlayer. Commercially available selective blacks include the mixed metal oxides such as x Fe2O3. (1-x) Cr2O3 (where x varies) and a perylene organic black. These materials absorb light across visible spectrum (400 to 700 nm), and do not absorb light in the near infrared (700 to ˜2500 nm). Thus, these pigments can be used to fabricate cool black materials. Grouping the mere 5% of the solar spectrum in the UV with the visible 45%, one can say that the solar spectrum is about ½ UV/VIS and about ½ in the NIR. The visible reflectance of black is usually about 0.05. If the NIR reflectance can be very high, say 0.95, then the overall solar reflectance of a cool selective black can be up to, but not exceed, 0.50. In a similar manner, the reflectance of other specified dark colors is limited because absorption in the visible is required to formulate a dark color.